Hey, new to the forums and Z car ownership! I have a 79 280zx N/t and I have a small problem that is draining my battery. Whenever I press my brake pedal all of my lights dim ,the radio shuts off, and the dash lights come on. Thinking it might be a bad ground so I'm going to tackle it with a volt meter tomorrow but just checking on here to see if anyone else has had a similar problem and found a simple fix.

 

Welcome to ZDriver!

I suggest getting your alternator checked.

 

Tested just fine. More info though, the voltage is at a constant 14 when off the brake pedal. Jumps around when I press it. Hope it's not a short... I'm not electrically inclined.

 

I had the same problem on my 79. The ground cables coming off the battery were bad.

 

Ground cables are fine replaced em anyway for good measure but same problem.

 

Well since its with the brakes on only, check the back lighting for bad grounds/shorts?

 

Yeah I thought that too, I had a tail light out and cracked plastic on the 79 rear lights so I swapped to fully working 82 tail lights and the problem didn't go away. I'm thinking maybe one of the wires rubbed the insulation off and is grounding out but I don't think the tail lights would work if that was the case.

 

Yeah still no luck. Now the car is dying out after it starts (with a jump) I hate electrical bugs.

 

Maybe your battery is toast (since you are jumping it)?

 

4 Day old battery. Just went through the entire car and sanded and re grounded every connection. Still doing it... Bad switch maybe?

 

Why were you jumping it w/ a new battery in it?

 

It died out, wouldn't start up. A couple days ago I got the battery test done after the car wouldn't start and it tested bad. So I went and got a new battery. Worked fine for about 3 days and then died again. I doubt it's the problem though since the car had the same problems before and after the new battery.